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Have you wanted to get a nice mechanical switch keyboard for your PC, but cannot justify the excessive cost? Monoprice comes to the rescue with this Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Cherry MX Blue keys!

This keyboard is designed as a bare-bones, no-frills mechanical board. You don't get a USB hub, or backlighting, or macro programmability. What you do get is a high-quality, durable keyboard using Cherry MX Blue keys at the lowest possible price, without sacrificing quality, of course!

But why would you even spend this much on a keyboard when you can get other keyboards for $5? There are two possible answers. First, just try it. Take a chance on our 30-day money-back guarantee and try it for yourself. Once you get a feel for using a mechanical keyboard, you will never go back.

The second answer is a bit more long-winded:

Membrane style keyboards typically have a minimal travel distance. To register the keystroke the key must be completely depressed, yet instead of a positive feeling of bottoming out the key, it produces a mushy feeling with no tactile sensation of a full keypress. Because of the requirement to bottom out the key to get it to register and the lack of tactile feedback, a membrane keyboard can result in greater hand and finger fatigue and can even contribute to carpal tunnel issues.

On the other hand a mechanical keyboard uses physical switches for each key. The switches have longer travel, yet can register a keystroke without requiring full depression, depending on which type of switch is used. This allows gamers to "double-tap" more easily and allows for faster typing. This keyboard uses the industry leading Cherry MX Blue switches, which require about 50-60 grams actuation force and which provide a physical and audible tactile click at the activation point. The switches are gold plated to prevent corrosion and have a life cycle of over 50 million keypresses, which is 5-10x more than that of a conventional membrane keyboard.

Another advantage of this mechanical keyboard is that it supports "N-key rollover". Each switch is individually monitored so that each keypress is registered properly, even though other keys are being actuated at the same time. This keyboard supports 6-key rollover for quick gaming combos and fast touch typing with fewer errors.

Note that the keys produce an audible click when they bottom out, so this keyboard is noisier than your typical membrane keyboard. However, many gamers and typists actually prefer the audible feedback and find it to help maintain faster typing speeds.

Pros: Good construction. It feels like you could probably kill someone with this thing. The attached USB cable is pretty thick, which makes it seem all the more durable. The clicky Blue MX switches have a very satisfying click, which I like. It's so good, that I can almost taste it. The roommate can't stand it.

Cons: Some of the keys don't have quite a perfect consistency in the amount of force needed to activate the key. For example: the backspace key takes significantly more force to depress than most of the other keys. It's difficult to say whether this is intended by design or a variation in the switches or springs. The LEDs are bright ... as in, do-not-look-directly-into-the-light bright.

This is my first mechanical keyboard, and I really like it so far. I want to get another one for work and drive my neighbors nuts. It's definitely taken some time to adjust my technique to these switches, but that's about what I expected. There is some info out there saying that the MX Blues are for typists, as opposed to gamers. I'm not an avid gamer, but I use this keyboard to play quite a bit of TF2 and have no complaints.

I've had it for less than 2 months, so I can't comment on its reliability yet.

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Rating: (7 out of 10)

Reviewer: bitwright from Costa Mesa, CA

2/10/2015 2:33:49 PM

Good Keyboard for the Price

Pros: Cheap for a mechanical keyboard.

Cons: *The keys aren't uniform in stiffness. Some keys require more pressure than others. After 8 months of use though the difference between keys has lessened (probably due to wear), but it was more noticeable when the keyboard was new.

*No n-key rollover. I use this for typing at work, so this isn't an issue for me, but be aware that this keyboard has poor rollover if you are planning to use it for gaming (though admittedly blue switch keyboards aren't ideal for gaming anyway).

*No detachable cord. The USB cable isn't detachable or easily replaceable. What's more, on my unit, after only 8 months of use, the cord has pulled loose from the casing, exposing the wiring. The cord has plenty of slack and I have never yanked or pulled at it, even accidentally, so I was surprised when I noticed this a few weeks ago.

I purchased this keyboard because I wanted to try out MX Blue switches, but I did not want to pay the expensive price of a higher quality keyboard before knowing whether or not I would like the feel of blue switches.

I am a software developer, and I use this board at work. For typing purposes, it has done its job well. The rubber dome keyboard my employer provided me was causing me wrist pain, which has disappeared since switching to this keyboard. If you are still using a rubber dome keyboard, let me reassure you that mechanical keyboards are worth the price.

That being said, everything about this keyboard in cheap. It looks and feels noticeably cheap. Don't expect the build quality of $100+ mechanical keyboards. For it's price though, especially when Monoprice puts this keyboard on sale, this keyboard works well enough for it's value.

If you are looking to get your first mechanical keyboard, or just looking to try out blue switches like I was, and don't want to spend as much as other, better quality mechanical keyboards cost ($120-$150 for a decent one), then this might be a good choice for you. This keyboard serves as a good stepping stone until you are ready to get something better.

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Rating: (10 out of 10)

Reviewer: Anonymous from Madison, TN

1/16/2015 10:49:57 PM

Pros: Feels solid
Classy/minimalistic look

Cons: Noise could be a con for some, but it sounds like success to me.

This is my first foray into mechanical keyboards, and I cannot believe the difference. They are so much more responsive, leading to improved speed and accuracy.

I was told that the blues are less sensitive, but coming from an awful cheap keyboard, that is not a term that I would use to describe these keys pressing them simply feels "right". I would not want or need more sensitive keys than these.

This keyboard makes typing more enjoyable, playing games more enjoyable, and life more enjoyable. I guess noise could bother some people, but the click adds to my satisfaction. Any type of keyboard other than mechanical seems absolutely useless and cumbersome to me. I hate that the cheap-os at my work stock the crappy ones instead of these wonderful devices.

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Rating: (10 out of 10)

Reviewer: Nate Holmes from Bloomington, IN

1/14/2015 5:36:51 PM

Great Product

Pros: -Great keys
-Awesome touch
-Not as loud as I expected

Cons: - No volume keys and other functionality keys

I knew what I was getting so the lack of functionality keys are no big deal. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a nice basic mechanical keyboard.

Cons: Where to begin?
1. 6-key roll over is more of a maximum(and counts modifier keys like shift and ctrl). The circuitry doesn't support several key press combinations. I don't need infinite key rollover, but 6 would have been sufficient if it worked everywhere.
2. New, the switches had a lot of variation in actuation force. If I were to venture a guess, the company that makes the keyboards probably buys lower quality switch batches from Cherry at a discount in bulk. The result being that some keys require more or less force than it should.
3. After a few months some of my keys started sticking after actuation and would remain pressed. These are plate mounted switches(you can tell by the weight and rigidity), so the process of digging around and "fixing" a switch would be non-trivial, to the point of it being "more efficient" to simply replace the board.
4. The USB firmware is kinda weird. I can't speak for everyone, but it took a couple of days worth of trouble shooting to get it to work.

Overall, it's a good buy at around $50. Mine isn't holding up so well to normal use, and I might pursue an RMA, but with return shipping being what it's likely to be, it might be better just to purchase a replacement when these go on sale again. Still feels better than typing on a dome keyboard, but some of the keys feel "squishy" or something.

If you're looking to get a mechanical keyboard for the first time, this isn't a terrible buy, just understand the limitations, especially in gaming(with many keypress combos being unavailable). For a typist, this is the perfect budget keyboard, as long as it outlives mine.

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